Telecommunication: Tutorials

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Vian Public Schools
Online Technology Competencies

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TUTORIAL 7.1Connect to the Internet or an on-line service

Check physical connections before attempting to log on. Check that all telecomputing hardware is turned on and check all cable connections.

The physical connections that allow access to the internet are already set and ready for use in the computer labs at VPS. An internet user needs three physical components and an organization to provide service:

• A computer that has a
• Modem installed (internal or external) with a
• Phone line connected to the modem, the other end of the line connecting to the wall like a regular telephone line.
• An internet service provider that allows access to the WWW and the internet. VPS computer labs have already been connected.

To connect to the internet is a simple task at VPS. Most computers across the campus have a direct connection to the internet. To connect to the internet via VPS, (an internet service provider), follow these steps:

1. Go to a computer lab and find an empty workstation.
2. Find the icon to begin Netscape or Internet Explorer.
3. Once the browser begins, you have connected to the internet and the home page is loaded.

 

VPS Students may connect to the internet through Telnet.

1. Go to an open computer in the computer lab.
2. Find and start the Telnet application.
3. Use the Vian domain to start a session.
4. Enter your student user id when prompted.
5. Enter your password when prompted.
6. The session begins and you are given a dollar prompt to enter a command.
7. You may type MAIL and then type READ to view your e-mail messages.
8. Type EXIT when done with a command.
9. Make sure you type LO at the dollar prompt (to log off) and then use File/Exit to leave Telnet.

Internet service providers are available around the world, in every state, and also at the local level. Service providers allow a user access to the internet. Examples of current local service providers include:

Compare the process of sending and receiving messages electronically vs non-electronically

 

Electronic Mail	Non electronic mail
Send mail immediately to its destination	Send mail through the post office and wait days for delivery
Attatch document files to electonic messages	Computer files must be stored on diskettes or other storage devices, costing more for shipping
Receive replies immediately	Wait on correspondence through the mail or by phone

Electronic mail is a convenient and fast way to send a message to another person (who has their own e-mail address) anywhere on the globe. Once the message is sent, the recipient's e-mail account receives the message in a matter of seconds. E-mail addresses are composed of a user name followed by an "@", then followed by the domain name of the service provider. Here are a few examples:

• annhogan@vian.k12.ok.us
• nanellis@vian.k12.ok.us
• webtech@vian.k12.ok.us

To compose a new message to send to another e-mail address, follow these steps: Netscape Navigator

1. Make sure your e-mail address is specified in the Mail and News Preferences under the Options menu in Netscape before attempting to create a new message. Under the servers tab in the Mail and News Preferences, make sure the in-coming and out-going fields read:
vian.k12.ok.us
2. Make sure the third field contains your username, but not the domain address, for instance
annhogan
3. Click on the "To Mail" button at the top of the Netscape document, a new dialog box opens to begin to compose the message. The cursor is active in the area where the recipient's e-mail address is.
4. Type in the recipient's electronic mail address in this area. For example, annhogan@vian.k12.ok.us
5. Move your mouse over the subject area and click once.
6. Type in a brief subject description for your message.
7. Next, click on the message area at the bottom of this window so the cursor is blinking where you want to compose your message.
8. Type your message to the recipient.
9. Click on the Send button. Your mail is sent electronically to the specified "to" e-mail address.

1. Make sure your e-mail address is specified in the Options under the Mail Menu in Internet Mail before attempting to create a new message. Under the servers tab in the Options, make sure the Incoming and Outgoing fields read:
vian.k12.ok.us
2. Make sure the third field contains your username, but not the domain address, for instance
annhogan
3. Click on the "New Message" button at the top of the Internet Mail, a new dialog box opens to begin to compose the message. The cursor is active in the area where the recipient's e-mail address is.
4. Type in the recipient's electronic mail address in this area. For example, annhogan@vian.k12.ok.us
5. Move your mouse over the subject area and click once.
6. Type in a brief subject description for your message.
7. Next, click on the message area at the bottom of this window so the cursor is blinking where you want to compose your message.
8. Type your message to the recipient.
9. Click on the Send (envelope top left) button. Your mail is sent electronically to the specified "to" e-mail address.

Send a carbon copy (CC)

A carbon copy is a way to send the same message to different people or different e-mail addresses. To send a duplicate message to another e-mail address:

1. Repeat the steps above to send a message.
2. After typing in the main e-mail address, click once in the "CC" area.
3. Type in any additional e-mail addresses to send carbon copies.
4. Press the Send Now button when you have completed composing the message.

Using Netscape or Internet Mail, students at VPS may read, save, print, reply to, and forward electronic mail. Using E-Mail, call up the mail messages that have been delivered to you.

Note: VPS students have available to them a username and password to use, free of charge, through the VPS server account. To get access to this account, contact the Computer Tech Department, 773-5798  Ext 219. Follow these steps to work with electonic mail.

1. Make sure your e-mail address is specified in the Options under the Mail menu before attempting to create a new message. Important! For VPS students, make sure that under the Servers tab in the Options window, the Out-going mail and the In-coming mail fields read:
vian.k12.ok.us
2. Make sure the third field contains your username, but not the domain address, for instance
annhogan
3. Next you must identify yourself to the browser. Internet Mail offers the following text fields for you to supply the following information.
4. Once your identity has been specified and your e-mail address has been specified, click Apply then OK.
5. If your e-mail is specified properly you are ready. Click Send and Receive button.
6. The message recently sent to you should appear in the Internet Mail window. Here, you may read, forward, print, and reply to e-mail.
7. Click on each of the messages to read them.
8. Choose one of the messages and click on the print button. The mail message should print if the printer is on and ready.
9. Click on one of the messages, and click on the Forward button. Internet Mail displays the mail composition window.
10. Enter a "To" electronic address. Click Send. You have just sent an electronic message.

Choose one of the messages and click on Reply. The composition window appears and you are prompted to enter another message. The "To" field, the"Subject" field, and the message that was sent is in the composition area. Move above the text and begin to compose a response to the message. You may also choose to erase the old message if you need to. It helps the recipient, though, if they can quickly reread their message to relate to your reply.

Computers as tools for accessing current information

Computers have fast become the standard in information exchange. Through the use of modems, phone lines, internet service providers, and web pages, computers deliver a variety of information to the internet surfer. The illustration below shows how a Client machine accesses a webs site from a Host machine.

When using a browser application, you are searching the internet from your client machine to view sites on another computer or Host machine. These web page files are often created with an HTML editor, and reference other files like gif's and mov's. The HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) code resides on the host computer to which you have temporarily connected. Through HTTP, (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), the website you connect to sends all text and pictures for that page, back to your machine.

Sites have a main page that is called a home page. When linking to VPS's site:

http://www.vian.k12.ok.us/home.htm

you first connect to the Vian Public School Home Page.

Next, connect to other pages through links on that page. Most every web site on the internet has links within it. These take you to other pages or other parts of the same page. Remember...

• Bookmark sites that you wish to return to later.
• Use the GO menu or the HOME button if you get lost in Cyberspace.
• Use the Back or Forward buttons in your browser to get out of a site.
• Or access a specific site...

 

 
 
 
 
 

Other valuable tools in a browser:

• Cataloging your favorite sites (Bookmarks for Netscape and Favorites for Internet Explorer)
• Using address books (keeping track of multiple e-mail address and names)
• Back, Forward, Reload (or refresh), Print and Open shortcut buttons

By entering the appropriate URL, in the Explorer application window's Address box, you may connect directly through HTTP in most instances, to another web site. Each web site has a specific domain name referred to in a URL address. URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator and consists of a protocol specification, followed by the domain name, folder names containing the HTML and other type of files, and often ending with the name of an HTML file. In the above example:

http://www.vian.k12.ok.us/hotlinks/index.htm

• http is the protocol
• www.vian.k12.ok.us is the domain address
• hotlinks is the directory that contains these files since other web sites use the same domain address
• index.htm is the name of the html file that is used to get you to the VPS website

 

 
 
 
 
 

This URL may also be reached by typing:

http://www.vian.k12.ok.us/training/tut7.htm

Each of the items below is the name of a different web site that provides a search engine. Each of these links go to home pages for that search engine. The concept of searching is to enter several descriptive words of your desired information and click GO or GET IT or SEARCH or SEEK, whatever the search engine calls the action "submit".

• Yahoo
• Infoseek
• Metacrawler
• Alta Vista
• Excite
• Lycos
• Magellan
• VPS Search Page

Downloading Files

Downloading or saving files from the internet is easy with Explorer. FTP sites specifically let you retrieve organized files on a site. However, any web page source code may be downloaded to your machine. Any picture or movie or animation found at a web site may be copied on to your hard drive. A few things to remember:

• To View the source code of a web page use Netscape's View/Document Source command or Internet Explorer's View/Source command. To change the source code of a web page, you must use File/Save as, then use an html editor.
• You must have enough space on your machine to download large files until you can move them where you need them.
• You must often have the correct decompression software to decompress a downloaded file. Decompression software is different for the Macintosh and Windows platforms. WinZIP is a popular compression/decompression software for the PC. Files from the internet may come over as .zip or .exe. Graphic files may be .jpg or .gif.
• Copying files may be a violation of copyright. Make sure it is legal to use the information (especially images), that you are copying.

Local accounts and access

To use a local internet service provider, you the internet user must establish an account with a local internet service provider. To establish a local account in this area, refer to any the following businesses. Local accounts cost anywhere from $10 dollars a month to $100 per month depending on your internet demands.

Local Service Providers

Commercial accounts are also available at a home, school or business that wants a national service provider. Many companies around the globe provide internet access with local dial-up phone numbers. Examples of commercial accounts that are available include:

• America Online
• Compuserve
• Microsoft Network

TUTORIAL 7.6On-line conferences relevant to professional information needs
***UNDER CONSTRUCTION***

Listservs, Newsgroups, and Usergroups each provide a form of on-line conference relevant to professional information. Some of these groups require information about you to join their group. Ususally a user name and password will do. Connecting to the groups involves using a newsgroup or usergroup electronic address.

For example:

***UNDER CONSTRUCTION***
 
 
 

Newsgroups members post messages to be read at other user's leisure. If you want to see what people are talking about (what their electronic messages are about) you must sift through and read all the posted messages.

Listservs are groups of e-mail addresses for persons participating in the listserv. Every member may send a message to the listserv about a topic that may be interesting to the group. The mail message is electronically sent to all of the e-mail addresses in the listserv.

TUTORIAL 7.7Use of Telnet to connect to a remote computer on the Internet

Connect to county or university library

You must first obtain the Internet Protocol Address to connect to a remote computer with Telnet.

VPS has many IP addresses: 65025 on the Router + 30 internal for servers.
For secrurity they are not listed. We may support Telnet in the future.

TUTORIAL 7.8Connect a computer to a modem and telephone line for dial-in access

The physical connections that allow access to the internet are already set and ready for use in the computer labs at VPS. Connecting a computer to a modem and telephone line for dial-in access takes experience in computer setup. Many machines come with a modem already installed. Connecting a phone line from the wall to your computer is only one of the four steps in getting internet access. Some machines use an external modem.

At VPS, computer network lines are hooked to a T-1 connection that has been purchased by VPS from Onenet. A T-1 connection allows many internet users simultaneous access to the internet.

The best way to see how a connection is made is to watch someone connect their computer, install a phone line from the computer to the wall, and go through the steps to configure the telecommunications software. Then connect to the internet with a web browser.

TUTORIAL 7.9Install and configure telecommunications software
***UNDER CONSTRUCTION***

Installing and configuring telecommunications software takes experience in comptuer setup and operations. Computer modems must be configured specifically for the computer in which they are installed. Parity bits, stop bits, baud rate, and protocol are just a few of the settings to establish when configuring telecommunication software.

Telecommunications software is provided by an internet service provider. Examples of Local and National companies that provide internet service are listed in Tutorial 7.5.

Browser software must be loaded in addition to the software that connects you to the Internet.

Once connected to an internet service provider, connecting again takes only seconds.

TUTORIAL 7.10Upload a text file and send as electronic mail

Sending a text file that is on a diskette or within a word-processing application takes only a few more steps than composing a message from scratch. In this exercise, you will use both a word processor and an internet browser application. To send a text file as electronic mail:

1. Open the text file in a word-processing document.
2. Using your mouse, click and drag over the text that you want to send. This is highlighting the text.
3. Go to the menu command Edit/Copy within your word processing application.
4. Switch to the Internet Explorer, go to Mail, click on New Message and paste the copied text into the message area of the mail window. To paste, choose the menu command Edit/Paste.
5. Make sure you have specified at least one recipient's e-mail address as well as the subject of the message.
6. Click on the "Send" button when you are done.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 Configuring Mail - Tutorial 7.2

TUTORIAL 7.11Use specialized e-mail lists relevant to professional information needs. Use electronic mail to send a resume.

Practice using Internet Mail by sending a professional letter to a prospective employer. Use a friend's e-mail address if you do not have another address or send the message to yourself. Use tutorial 7.2 to review how to compose an e-mail message.

Design a brief memo in Window's Notepad or MS Word. You may also select the text below in this browser, copy it, and paste it into the word processor to edit and begin the memo.

Include the following:

• Your Name
• Your Mailing Address
• Your Phone Number
• Dear (Prospective Employer)
• A brief introduction to the prospective employer stating your purpose for writing and requesting that they review your credentials for potential employment.
• Employment Experience
• Education Experience
• Special projects or honors
• Close with some appreciation for their time and add a sincerely or just add your name a few lines below the end of the closing statement.

 

 
 
 
 
 

Follow these steps to send the memo:

1. After beginning the word processor and typing the memo, select all of the text by highlighting it. Your application may have an Edit/Select All command.
2. With all the text selected, choose Edit/Copy. This text is copied to memory, ready to be pasted with the next paste command.
3. Switch to or open an Internet browser like Netscape or Mosaic.
4. Go to the mail section of the browser and choose to compose a new mail message.
5. Enter an electronic mail address in the "Send To" or the "To" area.
6. Type in a subject for the message.
7. Move to the message field of the window, click once and select Edit/Paste to paste the copied text. You may also use Ctrl-V for Paste (Windows).
8. Check over the message and recipient e-mail entries. An improperly typed e-mail "To" address will be returned to your e-mail account to alert you that the message was not properly sent.
9. After checking the message over, send the message.
10. Close the Mail Program

TUTORIAL 7.12Create and use group addresses for electronic mail

To use Group addresses, follow the steps in tutorial 7.2, composing an e-mail message.

Instead of only entering an individual address for the "To" section of the mail composition window, use the CC section of the mail composition window to enter other e-mail addresses.

Gopher

Gopher esentially is a menu of internet resources. The menus are maintained by Gopher servers. To use Gopher, you connect to a Gopher server, then choose menu options, and narrow the list of topics until you find the one you want.

Gopher servers emphasize a particular information category like agricultural, copyright law, or vacations. Once you have found the topic of interest, select it. If you have a shell account established, the file is downloaded to the server machine. If you are using a SLIP or PPP account, the file is transferred to the client's machine. Gopher provides three search tools: searchable indexes, Veronica, and Jughead.

When you choose menu options, called searchable indexes, the Gopher server is diplaying the specific information that it catalogs. Searchable indexes only look at an index for a Gopher directory. If you wish to look at several different places, you must search many searchable indexes.

Veronica searches Gopher servers and Gopher directories. If Veronica can find the specified keyword you provide, it will display the server or directory listing.

1. Connect to the internet
2. Start the Gopher client.
3. Choose the Gopher menu option that references Veronica.
4. When prompted, enter the keyword or the keywords you want to search. Initiate the search.
5. Gopher servers or Gopher directories relating to the keyword will be displayed.

Jughead works like Veronica and searchable indexes. Jughead searches a group of Gopher servers. You may not actually see the term Jughead but rather something like "Search Gopher titles at the University of Witchita".

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol or File Transfer Program. It allows you to move files from an internet host to a client. A host computer may be either the access provider's computer or your own personal computer. The Web Pages you create can be placed on the world wide web with FTP. Many web sites are set up to use FTP so the user can download information from the site. On these sites, internet surfers may need to log in using "anonymous" as their username. Some FTP sites require passwords, which provide more secure access to information.

Most web sites on the World Wide Web use HTTP, HyperText Transfer Protocol. Some sites use different protocols like ftp or news. To connect to an ftp site directly, the domain address for the site is typed in to Explorer's Address Box. For example:

• ftp://rtfm.mit.edu
• ftp://members.aol.com/lemkesoft/files/graphics.bin

 

TUTORIAL 7.15Using distance learning, desktop video conferencing, and teleteaching technologies

To use any teaching tool effectively takes hands-on experience and practice with the hardware and software. Teleteaching technologies currently include Distance Learning and Desktop Video Conferencing.

Distance Learning involves classroom teaching and person to person or group to group communication in real time. Using computers, desktop video conferencing software, and several cameras, participants communicate simultaneously about classroom topics, political debates, and other group to group project discussion.

CuSeeMe is a popular two-way video desktop communications application. Individuals or groups may use CuSeeMe to hold a desktop video conference or distance learning program.

Students may be able to sit in on a VPS distance education delivery!

Distance Education: Perceptions and Challenges

Three Models of Distance Education
 
 

Web Publishing Strategy

Developing a Plan

• Purpose: Why create this document?
• Scope: Define your focus and determine how broad or narrow topics will be covered.
• Audience: Who do you want to reach? What are their interests? Why will they visit? How will you tell them about your site.
• Structure: Introduction, main features, the catch, and the closing. Organizing information, directories and files.

Designing the Document

• Begin with a simple design
• Develop the main features of the document
• Develop a table of contents to introduce the document
• Bring visitors back with unique and engaging features
• Include background on the service, contact information, and copyright information if appropriate

Proofing your Web Document

• Proofread and Edit the Text
• Check Spelling and Grammar thoroughly
• Check the logic and flow of ideas
• Check images, figures and graphs

Testing Your Site

• Test all of your links on your computer and other computers
• Test on multiple platforms and with different browsers

Adding additional features to your site

• Business-oriented background page
• Personal Background page
• Product and Service summary

Publishing your Site

• Check the filename
• Move the file to its final location

VPS Online Web Tutor